Smaller parties cry foul over media, lack of resources

Durban – Smaller political parties have blamed lack of resources and media coverage during their election campaigns for their failure to secure seats at the KwaZulu-Natal legislature.

The parties, including Azapo and PAC, expressed disappointment on Friday afternoon as they watched results flowing in on the TV screens at the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) results centre in Durban. All of those who spoke to Independent Media had not received a seat.

“We ran a good campaign, but most of our programmes were not covered by the SABC, and we even took them to court because they did not want to cover us,” said ACM provincial chairperson Bongani Xaba

Xaba said the organisation, which was only formed in December, had expected a good performance. He said after the poor performance, the ACM would now start preparing for 2019 local government elections “after we have tasted the elections for the first time”.

“We now know what to do and what not to do, and come 2021 we will take most of the municipalities,” said Xaba.

People’s Revolutionary Movement (PRM), whose president Nhlanhla Buthelezi had during campaigns said gays and lesbians were not accepted in his party, also cried about lack of financial resources.

“There are places that were not reachable by our campaign teams. Since we are a new party, we did not have funding for our campaign,”

Numsa aligned Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party (SRWP)’s Charles Mohlala said his party had entered the election with no aim to win a seat.

“Actually we did not want to go to parliament, because the parliament is full of capitalists. The system of the parliament would make you succumb to capitalism,” he said.

He said SRWP did not expect support from Numsa, which is one of the biggest unions in the country.

“Amongst Numsa there are members of EFF, IFP, ANC and DA. So it is not to say if you are Numsa you should automatically support SRWP,” said Mohlala.

Despite having footprints on the liberation struggle, PAC failed to secure provincial seat.

“Nationally we have 27 000 votes and provincially we have a little less than that, and we are not happy.

“We have experienced internal problems, which delayed us from focusing on elections.

“The mainstream media, SABC to be honest, refused to show our campaign even when we invited it.

“We also did not have enough resources to travel the whole province,” said PAC provincial deputy secretary Sandile Cele.

Azapo’s provincial chairperson Mfana Nene, whose organisation also participated in the struggle, also cried about resources.

“We visited all provinces and districts but results are not what we are expecting we did not have the capacity to drive our message because of resources as compared to the ruling party.

“But we are not throwing in the towel because we have not reached the point of liberating our people, as black people are still oppressed in the country,” said Nene.